About Me
My name is John McClelland and I am a Newry City season ticket holder who has been following Newry since the mid 1980s when my father (Jimmy) first took me to the Showgrounds. He in turn has also been a lifelong fan and has been a regular at the Showgrounds since the 1960s when my grandfather Jackie (whom McClelland Park was named after) was a member of the committee.
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My father was always a great storyteller. When I was young child he used to tuck me in at night with tales from the old B Division. And even though I must have heard the story about Newry winning the Intermediate Cup in 1966, when Newry beat the Royal Navy Air Yard at Solitude, a thousand times, it was stories like these that ignited my interest in Newry's footballing past.
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The Mission
I started out at the beginning of the 2021/22 season with the aim of finding every result and goalscorer from our past and signed up to both the Irish and British Newspaper Archives online to aid me in my search. I then began the arduous task of reading every single match report I could find - mainly from the Irish News, the News Letter and the Ireland Saturday Night, taking note of the results, goalscorers and lineups until I couldn't find anymore online.
I then began going to the library, first in Newry to view their Newry Reporter Archives, then to the SELB headquarters in Armagh which has a superb catalogue of newspapers on microfilm including the Newry Telegraph which was fantastic until out ceased publication in 1970.
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With all this acquired information I was then unsure of what to do with it all. I had my Newry Football Memories Facebook page where I share old photos and stats etc, but I wanted somewhere to display an archive. The original plan was to write a reference book, however, I decided to roll with the times and with the help of a few YouTube videos I learned the basics of website building and took the plunge and although it is far from perfect, I am happy with how it had turned out so far... but there is plenty more to come.
Contact
If anyone can help with any information, for example missing players first names, or you have any pictures or memorabilia you would like to see featured or even to correct any mistakes I may have made, please do not hesitate to contact me either by email or by fb messenger. I would love to hear from you.